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The Numbers Guy at the WSJ does the math on blogs: Bottom line, there’s a lot, but nobody knows, but who cares: we’re getting close to a point where how many there are will be irrelevant. No one asks, “how many websites are there?” anymore. They won’t do that about blogs soon, either. (Which, I guess is what that USA Today writer was really saying when he said that interest in weblogs is going to chill. It’s hard to keep considering something a phenomena when it becomes as pervasive as air.)
(via: MediaDrop)
What Alice said: My friend Alice
Randall had an op-ed piece in the Tennessean today.
Quote:
“Harpeth Hall has a new Lady of the Hall… And she’s going to
Harvard. And she’s black.”
RSS mojo? Yahoo! Publisher Guide to RSS. Says Tara Calishain of ResearchBuzz, “This guide is less about rolling an RSS feed and more about what to do once you’ve got an RSS feed, specifically what to do with Yahoo.”
Congratulations, Carrie (and Lena): We got a little
“carrie-d” away at Hammock Publishing over this whole American Idol
thing. Fortunately, the Hammorati weblog’s
entertainment correspondent can relax.
The secret of the most popular bloggers, maybe: Lots of short posts.
Perhaps, but I suggest before accepting this as conventional wisdom, you speed read the book Freakanomics. I agree that blogging popularity has a correlation with frequency and breavity, but is this the secret?
Another consideration: The top sites aggressively give crediting links to those who provide their post ideas. By following this ethic, they have a natural following of bloggers who alert them when they see something blogworthy.
It amazes me how many bloggers miss out on the benefits of this simple courtesy. Let’s see some research on my thesis: Credit links and popularity have a correlation.
(Need I say more, except, via: Blogspotting)
Clarification: I’ve updated a post I made yesterday clarifying that a quote I attributed to an employee of Fast Company was made by a “guest host” on their weblog, not an employee.
For the record, I agree with his comment (at least the part about community). As for the sale of Fast Company, I have no opinion on whether or not selling the magazine will have any impact on its community. I would hope, however, that whoever purchases the magazine will realize that one of Fast Company’s most valuable and compelling assets is its history of understanding how (or that) magazine readers talk amongst themselves.
I experienced this over four years ago when Ramon Ray invited me to come talk with a Fast Company Company of Friends group he hosted in NYC. A lot of what I am most passionate about is fueled by my belief that few magazines are led by people who understand how to participate in the conversations taking place among their readers (Fast Company, Utne Reader, being two early exceptions). And, please note how I worded that last sentence: I did not say, “how to lead conversations or start conversations or host conversations, I said: “participate in the conversations taking place among their readers.”
 Top 10 Names Rejected as a new name for “Ask Jeeves”: Rafat Ali is reporting that Barry Diller says, “we’re thinking about renaming (Ask Jeeves).”
The rexblog has just obtained the top ten list of names Diller has already rejected as a replacement for Ask Jeeves:
10. Ask Mr. French
9. Ask Hazel
8. The Home Searching Network
7. Ask Cliff Claven
6. Excite
5. Bloglines
4. Axpedia
3. Ask Montgomery Burns
2. Ask Diane von Furstenberg
And the #1 rejected new name for Ask Jeeves….
1. Mr. Query
More Nashville news: On my RSS newsreader, I have a folder I’ve named “Nashville” with lots of feeds from the hood, including a few keyword feeds from Topix.net.. A few minutes ago, a UPI story appeared reporting that “six Tennessee walking horses will welcome tourists to the Nashville Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convestion Center.”
Now that’s some news I didn’t know: There’s still a UPI!
Huh? While I am not familiar with the American Society of Professional Communicators and didn’t know it was entered (one of my colleagues is responsible for that), I just found out the rexblog won an honorable mention “Masters Communication Award” in a category called, “Electronic Media - Other.” As “other” certainly describes what this is, I am honored to have been mentioned in such an honorable way (as is Blair, my technology coach).
(Side note: Shannon, I take back all those times I said disparaging things about “honorable mentions.”)
Brittney Gawkers Ms. Chesney: Enough with the station tours, dish up more of this.
 A new Nashville Nobody Knows podcast, and a podcast program suggestion: A morning jog included listening on my gum-package-size MP3 player, this week’s The Nashville Nobody Knows from Candace Corrigan. If you like unplugged country, bluegrass, jazz, folk or intelligent country music — in other words, not the crap you hear on commercial country radio — then listen to this or one of her earlier shows — they’re all great.
Show notes:
This week, Candace’s guest is Kathy Chiavola, singer, songwriter, studio session musician, vocal coach, and guitarist. Kathy shares some of the recordings from three of her own CDs. A favorite performer around Nashville, Kathy includes some comments about each of the songs and gives a great performance, well inside the ”not strictly bluegrass” genre.
(Personal note: It’s wonderful to hear Randy Howard’s fiddle. He died way to young and is greatly missed, but his music still inspires young fiddlers like the two who live with me.)
Okay, here’s the suggestion. While I love what Candace is doing, rumor has it there’s a thriving indie rock scene here (okay, thriving may be a stretch). Anyway, if there is not one already, I suggest someone (or, better yet, several people) do a show(s) like my friend Tim Germer’s Northwest Noise — except featuring music from bands either based here or appearing here. I know there are some college=radio programs like that on WRVU, but not with Tim’s, well, Wayne’s Worldliness (sorry, inside joke reference to his program today). Just a suggestion.
Tennessee news: Via AP, “Tennessee’s deputy finance commissioner spent 13 hours stuck in an elevator at the state Capitol after no one paid a phone bill.”
Run, Robert, Run: From today’s NYT - “A Front-Runner at Microsoft, but There’s No Race Yet” — However, apparently it’s primary season, so I think Robert Scoble should be making visits to New Hampshire and Iowa. The people’s candidate? : )
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